Top Stories, January 22nd

Red Arrow Soldiers Getting Settled In

1/22/10 - Beaver Dam-native Ben Larson is getting adjusted to civilian life again after serving a nine month tour of duty in Iraq. The 25-year-old Sergeant with the Wisconsin National Guard Red Arrow Brigade was called up last February as part of the state’s largest deployment since World War II. After training in Fort Hood, Texas Larson spent nine months “in-country” before returning to the states earlier this month. Larson says it was so hot in Iraq that you didn’t even want to got outside most of the time. And while it was only 60 degrees when he left Baghdad it was 10 degrees when he arrived in Wisconsin, a drastic change that he says he’s just now getting used to. Larson says care packages from home, sometimes from people he didn’t even know, were like Christmas presents for he and his fellow soldiers. He says one of the more memorable moments of his time in the Middle East was viewing a taping of the “fake-news” program “The Colbert Report” for Comedy Central. He called it “awesome.” It was the second tour of duty for Larson, who was in Iraq in 2004-05. He plans to return to UW Stephens Point in the fall to continue his studies in Sociology.

Authorities Continue Investigation Into Armed Robberies

1/22/10 - Authorities are investigating the possibility that the man who robbed a Beaver Dam business Wednesday night called the store first to ask for directions. Police say the masked suspect entered The Game Stop on Frances Lane displaying a semi-automatic pistol. Police Chief Dale Boldt says about an hour before the robbery, the store received a call from a male subject who asked for directions to the store. One of the employees believes the caller’s voice is consistent with the voice of the robbery suspect. Boldt says one witness described the suspect as speaking “slang.” A second robbery occurred less than two hours later at the Shell station in Lomira but authorities say the two are probably not connected, even though the last armed robbery in Dodge County occurred in May of 2008. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Dodge County Sheriffs Department or the anonymous We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME.

Woman Sentenced In Multi-County Crime Spree

1/22/10 – A Milwaukee-area woman will spend two years in prison for burglarizing a Dodge County residence as part of a multi-county crime spree. 25-year-old Sabrina Mauhar and two others broke into a Town of Ashippun home last June. According to the criminal complaint, a witness saw three people taking items from a neighbor’s residence and putting those items into their vehicle. The man called 9-1-1 and provided a description of the suspects and the vehicle. Within 25-minutes, a Dodge County deputy confronted the burglars in the driveway of another residence in Washington County. That owner, an off-duty police officer, was awakened by the burglars kicking in his door and he was in the process of calling 9-1-1 himself. The three have been also been connected to burglaries in Washington and Waukesha counties. 30-year-old Danielle Zipter will be in Dodge County court for a preliminary hearing next week. 21-year-old Corey Shreeves failed to appear for his initial hearing and an arrest warrant has been issued. Mauhar’s two year prison sentence for the Dodge County burglary will run consecutive to a four year prison sentence handed down last month for the Washington County break-in. All three still face charges in Waukesha County.

BD Man Charges With Child Porn Possession

1/22/10 - A Beaver Dam man faces felony charges of Possession of Child Pornography. Brandon J. Alexander could spend up to 25 years in prison for allegedly downloading videos featuring pre-pubescent girls from a file sharing website. Special Agents with the state Department of Criminal Justice are able to use software to identify the digital fingerprint of a specific video and trace that to the users who download that video. Alexander originally told investigators that he accidentally downloaded the videos because he could not tell based on the title alone that the files contained child porn. According to criminal complaint, he later conceded that he knew that terms like “12 y-o” means “12-year-old.”

Sex Offender Sent To Jail for Groping Neighbor

1/22/10 - A Beaver Dam man will spend four months in jail for inappropriately touching a neighbor. Ervin M. Frey pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor count of Fourth Degree Sexual Assault related to the November incident at his apartment. The victim has established a recent friendship with Frey and was at his apartment because he had heat when the 75-year-old convinced her to take a nap on his bed. That’s she says Frey repeatedly groped her. Frey is a convicted sex offender who was on probation for a 2001 charge of Repeated Sexual Assault of the Same Child.

Columbus Survey Results Under Review

1/22/10 - The Columbus Council and Administrators are reviewing results from the UW Survey Research Lab’s (November, 2009) City-wide questionnaire. The survey will play an important part in this year’s (2010) Common Council decisions. Conclusions reached by U W researchers include: Residents of Columbus want – and are willing to pay for – improvements in roads, sidewalks, storm water management and selected community projects such as the Udey Dam repair and improvements to the Fireman’s Park pavilion. Residents want the City to be a center that benefits from their passenger train service, downtown retail sector and light industry base. Respondents want housing reflecting emerging demographic profiles with more options for seniors, more affordable housing and programs to improve existing housing. There is broad agreement across demographic groups supporting these strategic directions. The 37-page 2009 Columbus Citizens Survey has been added to the City’s website – cityofcolumbuswi.com - so residents can share in the conclusions.

Republicans Introduce Jobs Bill

1/22/10 - Wisconsin Senate Republicans introduced their own bill to create jobs today. It was unveiled just hours before the Senate was scheduled to vote on a Democratic plan aimed at creating new jobs with things like tax credits for investments in new companies – and letting smaller firms take advantage of U-W research. Senate G-O-P Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says the Democratic plan is fine, but quote – “It doesn’t even scratch the surface of what needs to be done to jump-start job creation” in the state. The Republican package is called “Wisconsin Jobs Now.” It seeks to cut government spending, reduce state taxes and business regulations, cuts health care costs, and revamps education. Fitzgerald said the plan has recommendations offered by over 160 companies throughout the Badger State.

Statewide Unemployment Back Up To 8.7%

1/22/10 - Unemployment went up in Wisconsin last month. State workforce development officials said the seasonally-adjusted jobless rate rose by a-half-percent from November to December. It’s now at eight-point-seven percent. The actual unadjusted jobless rate also went up. That’s at eight-point-three percent, up four-tenths from the previous month. The state lost another 26-thousand jobs in December, and a total of 163-thousand jobs were lost for all of 2009. Just over two-point-seven million Wisconsinites were employed last month. The state’s jobless rate was below the national figure of 10-percent – but the national percentage did not go up from November.

State Gets More LIHEAP Dollars

1/22/10 - Wisconsin just got another 31-million-dollars to help low-income residents heat their homes this winter. Governor Jim Doyle says the money comes from the federal government. And it raised the total amount of aid for this winter in the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program to 128-million dollars. Income limits were raised this year – and it raised the amount of Wisconsinites eligible for the program by about 40-percent. State officials expect over a quarter-million residents to get part of their heating bills covered this year. Single residents qualify if they made less than 19-hundred-53 dollars a month. The maximum income for a family-of-five is just over 43-hundred a month.

Dead Sea Scrolls At Milwaukee Museum

1/22/10 - The Milwaukee Public Museum will display fragments of the two-thousand-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls starting today. The documents were found in caves near the Dead Sea in 1947 – and some scholars believe the Scrolls validated the Old Testament and the start of Christianity. The exhibit describes the archaeological history of the Holy Land around the time the Scrolls were created. There are close to 200 manuscripts, photos, artifacts, interactive displays, and more. The display is called “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible – Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures.” It’s the largest temporary exhibit ever put on by the Milwaukee Public Museum. The display continues through June sixth.